Naidu blames Cong. for farmers' problems

By Our Special Correspondent

VIJAYAWADA, SEPT. 17. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has squarely blamed the Congress-I for the ills plaguing the Krishna delta, and cautioned people not to be misled by its inciting statements. He has appealed to them to vote for the TDP in the byelection for the Vuyyur Assembly seat and help the Government work with greater vigour for the welfare of all castes, communities and religions.

Addressing an election meeting at Vuyyur today, Mr. Naidu said that Congress leaders lacked discipline and honesty and said different things to different people to garner votes and come to power. He pointed out that Congress leaders demanded Pulichintala in coastal Andhra while opposed it in other regions. ``If the Congress leaders in Andhra Pradesh are so concerned about Alamatti dam, they can prevail on their counterparts in Karnataka and stall it,'' he felt.

Mr. Naidu said that Krishna delta faced water problem this year because the water levels in Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam reservoirs were the lowest in the last 36 years. He said the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, had agreed to his demand to release any quantity of rice to implement `food-for- work' programme and meet the drought situation. The Central Government had also agreed to give 10 kg rice per day to each worker under the scheme. The State Government had announced interest subsidy on cooperative loans and other concessions to farmers amounting to Rs. 320 crores till now.

Mr. Naidu, however, admitted that the Government had not been able to help farmers get minimum support price for paddy during last rabi season despite best efforts. So the Government was now taking measures like construction of godowns to prevent recurrence of distress sale of paddy in future. The Congress was shedding crocodile tears for farmers now. All these problems arose because it had signed the GATT blindly, he felt.

The Chief Minister announced that farmers would be supplied uninterrupted power from next August. The Government was spending Rs. 1,000 crores for this purpose.

He came down heavily on the APCC president, Mr. M. Satyanarayana Rao, for criticising the practice of fielding widows in byelections whenever an MLA died saying that it would lead to ``Widows Assembly.'' Mr. Naidu said that such comments would hurt all women, including AICC president Sonia Gandhi.

He took objection to the Congress bid to project the byelection at Vuyyur as a fight between the rich and poor. Mr. Naidu said that the TDP would review its policies and correct them to avoid inconvenience to the people. Later, speaking to newspersons he said that he did not consider Vuyyur byelection as a referendum on the performance of TDP Government. ``Only idle Congressmen threw such challenges,'' he said.

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Section  : Southern States
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